


Shame for us to Part

by HarleysCompass



Series: Speak as Loud as Your Heart [3]
Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Bisexual Character, Case Fic, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, I got some actual plot up in this shit, I hope everyone is still ok with that, M/M, Percival Graves gets even more hugs, Slow Burn, Sort of? - Freeform, Timeline is wonky, brief mentions of period typical homophobia, brief mentions of period typical racism, but I will eventually make it semi-compliant with Crimes of Grindelwald, expect a longer fic this time around, rated M for future chapters, slow-ish?, they are there for the story and world building I'm sorry, will tag more as we progress, yes there are even more OCs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-07 01:35:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16844497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HarleysCompass/pseuds/HarleysCompass
Summary: It's a year after Grindelwald's arrest, and the rescue of the Graves' family.  But something is happening in New York, something big, something dark.  While desperately trying to protect New York, Percival Graves is also looking for answers for a woman about her murdered husband, attempting to deepen his relationship with one Newt Scamander, and further mend his fractured family.This fic follows directly after Set you Apart, highly recommended you read that first.





	Shame for us to Part

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, hello! Welcome back, ya'll! It's great to be back. Hope everyone is doing well and I can't wait to get more of this up for your enjoyment.  
> I came up with the idea for this fic back when I was writing SYA and it was originally supposed to be a part of that, but I realized it was going to be a pretty plot heavy story. Because of that, it was going to have a different feel from the rest of SYA so I thought it best to cut SYA where I did and make this a separate story. I started writing all this right after I finished SYA, so like a year and a half ago, but it was slow going until I had the wonderful good fortune to spend a month in London studying for my major. Criminology and Criminal Justice, my friends, it was so much fun and so wonderful and beautiful and I loved every moment of it. It kind of gave me the spark to get going more on this. I've slowed down a little bit though as Crimes of Grindelwald came out last month and with the movie's plot in mind it kind of derails plans I originally had for this story. I'm probably going to work the movie's plot into this story, though for obvious reasons the timeline is going to be a bit different. So I'm still working on the story, but I thought I'd give you all a taste of what I'm working on. No first chapter preview, this time you're getting the whole first chapter!  
> Title for this part of the series, again, comes from the Coldplay song The Scientist.  
> I have a personal blog on tumblr that's just my art and updates on my writings and I have a whatever blog which is everything. If you want to contact me it's easier on my art blog as I don't lose things in the clutter of all the shit I post, lol. Anyway, if you want to talk about the new movie, my works, or anything else at all feel free to find me on my art blog : [Harleyslegend](http://harleyslegend.tumblr.com)!  
> Anyway, hope you enjoy, please leave a comment or a kudo if you liked it!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As with SYA and PYPA, I'm going to leave any extensive comments for the A/N comments at the end of each chapters. Here I'll just give you the chapter title inspiration.  
> This chapter's title comes from the song A Call to Arms by Laura Jansen (ft. Ed Harcourt). I have a lot of songs I've been listening to for inspiration while I write this series, this is one I found just a couple weeks ago, but the moment I heard it I knew I wanted to use a lyric as one of my chapter titles. I settled on this line as it reminded me of something my mother once told me. My mom grew up on a sailboat with her two brothers and parents. She told me that sailors have a saying: "Red at night, sailor's delight. Red at morning, sailor's warning." Red of course referring to the red of the sky at sunset. I can't remember why it would be considered bad in the morning, but I found the line fitting for the fact that this is the start of it all. Give the song a listen and let me know what you think: [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-FF_dd_VXw)  
> Line comes from the very beginning of the song, but is repeated at the very end as well:   
> My love, the drums are calling.  
> A red sky, a warning.

On the anniversary of Grindelwald’s arrest, a man shows up in New York. He makes his way to Times Square and loudly proclaims for all to hear who he is and why he is here. His name is Radomil Řezník, he claims he's a dark wizard though he's obviously just a Grindelwald groupie, and he is here to challenge the one who defeated Grindelwald to a duel.

Graves hears this and must see for himself. Řezník postures long and loud and is dressed in the most ridiculous garb, as if he's trying to intimidate them. He looks like an utter fool. Graves thinks it's the funniest thing he's heard or seen in a long while. His Aurors actually hesitate, having been so long since any of them have seen him full on laugh. One of his Junior Aurors takes pity on this “Dark Wizard” and easily arrests him while the man is flailing in anger over Graves obvious lack of respect. Gwen and her Obliviators had come out, if needed, but the entirety of the No-Maj population seems to think the man is just some crackpot. She happily leaves, shaking her head with a smirk. Newt is a little more worried about the whole thing then Graves but doesn't take it very seriously either. Graves still sets one of his Auror’s to interrogating Řezník, of course, but even he comes out with an almost pitying smile. They all easily forget about the incident within the week.

December runs as quiet for Graves as November had, the cold weather keeping most of the less zealous criminals off the streets. Graves is reminded that quiet isn't necessarily good though. There are less crimes for himself to deal with, but it means the crimes that do occur are more severe and harrowing. His team has it mostly covered, but the more frustrating cases come to him. The wizarding community likes to think they are above the No-Maj population, but crime is just as bad, if not worse, when magic is involved. He has five murders on the books the week before Christmas, only three of them have any useful evidence, and only one of those has any worthwhile suspects. It's going to be another holiday with him working past hours and spending it behind closed doors.

In years previous, he'd balanced his life by taking practically every holiday off except Christmas Eve and Christmas. Those he spent in the office, sending most of his Aurors home to their families and only keeping those who wouldn't take no for an answer. This year is no exception. There are only ever about eight of them who work Christmas Eve and the following day, and usually those who don't celebrate or don't have anyone to celebrate with. Or those who are just too dedicated to their work, which is usually Senior Auror Goldstein. There are a handful of incidents on Christmas Eve and Christmas that their assistance is requested on, but none require his presence so it's a quiet day in the office.

Despite their desire to work, Arlene used to stop by just before midnight with home baked goods from her mother or traditional No-Maj treats that her department had whipped up and they would sit about around midnight sipping hot buttered rum or spiced cider. Even with the obvious lack of Arlene, Graves halted their work and gathered them in the usual loose circle about an hour before midnight on Christmas Eve. They sip coffee and tea that Queenie had passed through with, and a box of creature shaped treats Newt brought. The department’s bullpen was dark except a few desk lamps, and they were mostly quiet aside from the occasional sigh over the warm beverages or soft pastries.

When it neared midnight, Graves straightened and half saluted the others with his mug.

“It's been a trying year, but as always, you lot never faltered. Thank you…” he hesitated a moment, glancing about before looking down into his nearly empty mug. “Thank you, for holding this department together, while I was struggling to do so.” It was hard to admit it, but he needed to say it, and his team needed to hear it. Even if it was just these few. He looked up as Finley dropped a hand to his shoulder and gave a brief squeeze and faint smile. No one said anything in regard to his gratitude, merely gave him the same reassuring look as his Deputy Director, as if to say his thanks was unnecessary in their eyes. Knowing his team, it was. He smiled into his cup before turning away. “Alright, that's enough slacking, back to work.” They all gave their customary groans of protest and whining ‘but Graves,’ as they did every year, but all of them went willingly back to their desks. Before Newt left, he halted Graves at his office door and gave him a quick peck on the cheek before hurrying back to his own department. Graves didn't look over his shoulder, but he could tell by the forced silence that this new development would be the department gossip come Monday when the rest of MACUSA was back to work.

Despite the extra hours, things just aren't adding up, and only two of his five cases end up solved by Thursday morning. He's frustrated, and nothing is moving forward. Two of them have the barest of leads that are quickly drying up, and the last he still doesn't even have a guess as to the victim's identity. He has the faces of two of his victims staring up at him through endless happy loops from the pictures their families provided. The only thing that keeps him from chucking the files at the wall in his frustration is the younger of the two identified victims. The photo that the wife was able to give Graves, the only one that existed, was from the victim's wedding day some three years ago. Of course it would be. Jimmie Travers looks positively over the moon with joy, and Geneva Travers is laughing, radiant in her own happiness. She's too young to have to go through the pain Graves has, he thinks. But he guesses he's lucky, he knows who is to blame. He still has to find the culprit, so she will too. He sighs and presses his fingers into his closed eyes until he sees starbursts. Glancing back down at the file, a spark lights across his right wrist. Occasionally, he'll feel the warm pulse of fingers on his wrist, attempting to wrap around completely but unable to. But recently he's also been feeling the gentle warmth of what feels like two small fingers running back and forth across the gold circle. Most the time he won't pay it any mind, knowing Everett fiddles when she is in deep concentration without realizing.

Today he relaxes at the content feeling it brings and he presses his thumb to the Thunderbird which is resting just above his own pulse point. For a moment the feeling leaves, his wrist starkly cold in the absence of her magic. Seconds later, he feels an answering press of fingers against his pulse. He swears he can actually feel the faintest thump of her heartbeat against his finger and he can't help but smile.

Before he leaves the office that evening, he sends a notice to Picquery and Finley, and a letter to Mabel.

At noon the next day, Graves opens the door of his townhouse. Mabel is there waiting with his children. Everett has her nose stuffed in a textbook, the Ilvermorny scarf he got her for Christmas covering half her face, and Mabel is desperately trying to keep Theodore from running off down the walk to chase pigeons in the street his new gloves already dirt stained. His daughter doesn't even look up as she walks into the house, and his son tears into the living room past her. Mabel merely sighs before giving him a smile, a kiss on the cheek, and a heartfelt ‘have fun’ before she leaves.

He only has his children until Sunday morning, when he takes them to send Everett back to Ilvermorny, but just the few days together makes his mood lighten quickly. It's hard to worry about cases and let them eat at him when he's chasing Theodore about the house to get him ready for bed or answering Everett’s questions about her studies. It's a little chaotic and he doesn't know if he's doing anything right, but that's ok. Everett spends most her time in her room studying anyway, and Mabel sent plenty of toys for Theodore so he’s busy with those almost all day. By the time he waves goodbye to Everett at the train platform and Theodore heads off with the Sullivan's, Graves feels loose and relaxed. Come Monday, the cases look less impossible, and more manageable. An extra case had been added to the pile over the weekend, but Finley had looked at his other cases to give him a fresh perspective and left some notes for him. By the end of the day, he already has more leads then he left them with, if not complete answers.

It's not the best start to a new year but he's had worse, so he'll take this.

A month after the anniversary of Grindelwald's arrest, a man walks into downtown Manhattan. He demands they bring forth the one who defeated Grindelwald or he'll start killing No-Maj. To show he's serious, he grabs hold of some hapless young man and fires off several fire spells over the heads of the crowd that's trying to flee. Graves immediately takes action and sends in a small team. While one tries to talk him down, two more come in from behind and subdue the man before things can escalate. Gwen presses her mouth into a flat line as she directs her team into obliviating all No-Maj in the area. When the man arrives at MACUSA he shouts about how weak the government has become and refuses to say anything else. Graves sends Goldstein in to interrogate him anyway but gets nothing. Having been a month to the anniversary, and seeing as this isn't the first time this had happened, Graves sends Finley to talk to Řezník once more and try to find a connection. There is none. As far as they can tell these are two separate, though incredibly similar, incidents. Newt is uneasy about the occurrence, and so is Graves, so he contacts others in his position across the magical world to see if anyone has any information. Without any new word, Graves tries not to let it take too much attention from his other cases and it goes on the back burner after a week.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _A/N: Not much to say about this chapter, it was pretty short. Expect future chapters to be much longer. Any questions, comments, hate, love, or anything else, feel free to leave a comment and I'll respond! Thanks everyone for reading, see you next chapter!_


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